Greg Pak

Last week, we interviewed Greg Pak and Jonathan Coulton about their new Kickstarter with artist Takeshi Miyazawa. A spin-off of sorts of their 2013 campaign for Code Monkey Save World, this one was meant to bring a children's book adaptation of Coulton's The Princess Who Saved Herself into print.

If you remember how that original campaign ended with them reaching almost ten times their original goal --- or if you remember that Coulton is one of the most successful independent musicians around thanks to his extremely loyal fan-base --- it won't surprise you to learn that the campaign already soared $45,000 past its initial goal in its first week; but there's another reason that people are jumping on. The book is already done, and as the eight-page preview we've got below shows, it looks awesome.

Back in 2013, comic book writer Greg Pak, musician Jonathan Coulton and artist Takeshi Miyazawa launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a comic book adaptation of Coulton's songs called Code Monkey Save World. If you're familiar with Coulton, it probably won't surprise you to learn that the campaign blew through its $39,000 goal in less than twelve hours, and went on to blow through a bunch of stretch goals --- one of which included Pak and Miyazawa producing a children's book based on Coulton's "The Princess Who Saved Herself."

If you were a backer (and I was), then you got that children's book today in a digital format, but the team isn't quite done with it yet. They've launched a new Kickstarter with a goal of producing a physical copy of the book, and to find out why, I spoke to Pak and Coulton about the response to their initial campaign, the origin of the project, and what they hope to get out of it.

In case you've forgotten their current status in the New 52 version of the DC Universe (which at this point is old enough that we can probably stop referring to it as New), Superman and Lois Lane are no longer romantically entangled.

Superman is, of course, currently dating Wonder Woman, while Lois is with... Jonathan Carroll? Remember that dude? Is he still around? Well, trust me on this one, he doesn't matter, because as of this week's Batman/Superman #15, Lois is going to be dating Batman -- or at least, she's going to be going on a date with him.

Writer Gail Simone, who is getting ready to wrap up a sometimes-tumultuous run on Batgirl, has started a new Tumblr called Comics Survival Kit that aims to help up-and-coming or aspiring comic creators navigate the tricky landscape that is professional comics work.

Marvel went to C2E2 armed with a plethora of publishing announcements for the Chicago crowd, focusing largely on special projects like miniseries and some pretty cool-sounding Original Sin tie-ins, but with a couple auspicious new series as well. In an inspired bit of comic book casting, Our Love Is Real and Avengers A.I. writer Sam Humphries will write the The Legendary Star-Lord, a new series drawn by Paco Medina starring the Guardians of the Galaxy leader. In similarly agreeable news, fan favorite X-Men leader Stormwill star in a new ongoing series, this one courtesy of Greg Pak and Victor Ibanez.

Each week, ComicsAlliance’s Chris Sims and Matt Wilson host the War Rocket Ajax podcast, their online audio venue for interviews with comics creators, reviews of the books of the week, and whatever else they want to talk about. ComicsAlliance is offering clips of the comics-specific segments of the show several days before the full podcast goes up at WarRocketAjax.com on Mondays.

A common set of questions at every Valiant Comics panel since Dark Horse wrapped their stint on the properties has been about what's up with a group of characters originally published by Gold Key but later licensed by Valiant in the 1990s: Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Solar: Man of the Atom and Magnus: Robot Fighter.

Those questions can be put to bed now, as Dynamite Entertainment, not Valiant, has announced a new line of comics via a license with Dreamworks Classics. Also part of the deal is Doctor Spektor, an "occult detective" character who hasn't been seen since a Gold Key run in the mid '70s aside from a series of reprints from Dark Horse.

Q: Is there a creator or character you initially disliked before later becoming a fan? If so, what turned it around? -- @MASolko

A: If you've read this column before -- or, let's be honest here, if you've even just kind of glanced at it before clicking on something else -- you're probably already aware that I'm a person with some pretty strong opinions that I form quickly and then stand by against all arguments to the contrary. This is obviously the best way to have feelings, but I'll admit that my rush to judgment has occasionally led me to be...

With the recent launch of Batman/Superman and a trio of "Villain Month" issues, you'd think that one man would have enough of writing Superman. As it turns out, however, Greg Pak has a dire need that can only be sated by an ongoing series. That all-consuming hunger to tell Superman stories is (presumably) why he and artist Aaron Kuder are taking over Action Comics starting with November's issue #25.

We spoke to Pak to find out more about his influences for the series, whether it's difficult to juggle two Superman stories set at different times, and, perhaps most importantly, what his plans are for Terra-Man.

A very enormous Superman movie opened recently, and the Man of Steel's publisher DC Comics is availing itself of the occasion to launch some new projects designed not just to entertain its existing readership but to welcome Man of Steel viewers intrigued by what they’ve seen on screen. We already discussed the first issue of Superman Unchained, the new series by DC superstars Scott Snyder and Jim Lee, and this week saw the debut of Batman/Superman, billed as the story of the first meeting of the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel. The book is written by recent DC recruit Greg Pak, a ComicsAlliance favorite for his work on Marvel books like Planet Hulk and Hercules, and artist Jae Lee, the former Dark Tower illustrator and popular cover artist who raised his game immensely with the visually stunning contributions to the controversial Before Watchmen project.

As was the case with Superman Unchained, the pairing of Lee and Pak has drawn some lapsed DC readers back to see what’s become of the World's Finest since their New 52 makeovers. It is mainly from the perspective of that New 52 n00b that we contemplated this auspicious new issue and noted the following Very Important Things.

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